System and method for displaying three-dimensional map based on road information

ABSTRACT

A system and method of displaying a three-dimensional (3D) map based on road information. A display system, including: a culling area determination unit to determine a culling area based on road information; a data conversion unit to convert data of at least a portion of objects displayed on the culling area; and a display unit to display at least the portion of the objects based on the converted data.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is the U.S. national stage application of InternationalPatent Application No. PCT/KR2008/003791, filed Jun. 29, 2008, whichclaims priority to Korean Application No. 10-2008-0037765, filed Apr.23, 2008, the disclosures of each of which are incorporated herein byreference in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a three-dimensional (3D) map displaysystem and method based on road information, and more particularly, to a3D map display system and method which converts and displays data ofobjects near a road based on road information such as a width and a laneof the road.

BACKGROUND ART

Displaying buildings, mountains, hills, and the like may enrich an imagein a three-dimensional (3D) map. At the same time, buildings, mountains,hills, and the like may obstruct a view and prevent particularinformation from being completely displayed. For example, whennavigation information is provided through a 3D map, information about avehicle, starting point, and destination may not be accurately provideddue to buildings.

Accordingly, a technology to enable buildings, mountains, and hills aswell as a vehicle, starting point, and destination to be appropriatelydisplayed is required. Thus, a system and method of efficientlydisplaying an object such as a building is provided.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION Technical Goals

An aspect of the present invention provides a display system and methodwhich determines a culling area based on road information such as awidth and a lane of a road, converts data of at least a portion ofobjects, displayed on the culling area, to enable at least the portionof the objects to be removed or blended, and thereby may enable guidanceinformation to be completely displayed and efficiently display objects.

An aspect of the present invention also provides a display system andmethod which dynamically determines a process of generating an objectsuch as a building based on a width of a road using a virtual figurethat may be generated based on road information, and thereby mayefficiently display the object.

An aspect of the present invention also provides a display system andmethod which divides a culling area into a plurality areas, removes aportion of an object located adjacent to a road, blends a portion of anobject located far away from the road, and thereby may efficientlydisplay the objects.

Technical Solutions

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided adisplay system, including: a culling area determination unit todetermine a culling area based on road information; a data conversionunit to convert data of at least a portion of objects displayed on theculling area; and a display unit to display at least the portion of theobjects based on the converted data.

The road information may include information about at least one of awidth and a lane of a road.

The culling area determination unit may determine an area correspondingto a virtual figure capable of being generated as the culling area basedon the road information.

The culling area determination unit may include a width determinationunit to determine a width of a road, and a weight providing unit toprovide a predetermined weight for the determined width. In thisinstance, the culling area determination unit may determine arectangular area as the culling area, and the rectangular area may havethe weighted width as a side.

The data conversion unit may convert the data to enable at least aportion of each of at least the portion of the objects to be removed.

The data conversion unit may convert the data to enable at least aportion of each of at least the portion of the objects to be blended.

The display system may further include an area division unit to dividethe culling area into a plurality of areas. The data conversion unit maydifferently convert data of an object depending on the divided area. Inthis instance, the different conversion may include data conversion toremove at least a portion of objects and data conversion to blend atleast the portion of the objects. Also, the area division unit maydivide the culling area into the plurality of areas generated byproviding weights different from each other for the width of the road.

At least the portion of the objects may include an object obstructing aroad from view.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a display method,including: determining a culling area based on road information;converting data of at least a portion of objects displayed on theculling area; and displaying at least the portion of the objects basedon the converted data.

Advantageous Effects

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a display systemand method determines a culling area based on road information such as awidth and a lane of a road, converts data of at least a portion ofobjects, displayed on the culling area, to enable at least the portionof the objects to be removed or blended, and thereby may enable guidanceinformation to be completely displayed and efficiently display objects.

Also, according to an embodiment of the present invention, a displaysystem and method dynamically determines a process of generating anobject such as a building based on a width of a road using a virtualfigure that may be generated based on road information, and thereby mayefficiently display the object.

Also, according to an embodiment of the present invention, a displaysystem and method divides a culling area into a plurality areas, removesa portion of an object located adjacent to a road, blends a portion ofan object located far away from the road, and thereby may efficientlydisplay the objects.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a general example of a display methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a display method according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of determining a cullingarea based on road information;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating another example of determining aculling area based on road information;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a culling area determinedbased on a width of a road;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen where a portionof each object included in a culling area is removed;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen where objectsincluded in a culling area are blended;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen where differentconversions are applied depending on divided areas; and

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a displaysystem according to an embodiment of the present invention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the presentinvention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elementsthroughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain thepresent invention by referring to the figures.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a general example of a display methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 illustratesa general example of the display method in a navigation environment of avehicle.

It is illustrated that a first building 113 obstructs a location 112 ofa vehicle driving on a first road 111 from view in a first map 110simply displayed three-dimensionally (3D). In this instance, at least aportion 122 of a second building 121 may be removed or blended asillustrated in a second map 120 of FIG. 2. Accordingly, necessaryinformation may be efficiently displayed. Here, an area to remove orblend a portion of an object may be determined to dynamically adjust aculling area.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a display method according to anembodiment of the present invention. Here, each operation of the displaymethod may be embodied by a display system according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

In operation S210, the display system may determine a culling area basedon road information. The road information may include information aboutat least one of a width and a lane of a road. That is, the displaysystem may determine the culling area based on the width or the lane ofthe road. For example, as the width of the road increases or a number oflanes of the road increases, the culling area may be determined to belarger.

In this instance, the display system may determine, as the culling area,an area corresponding to a virtual figure that may be generated based onthe road information. For example, the display system may determine anarea of a square as the culling area. The square may have a side with alength where a predetermined weight is provided for the width of theroad. Also, the culling area may be determined as a cube or an areacorresponding to a hemisphere on a condition that the culling area is in3D. In this instance, the cube may start from ground level and have theweighted length as a side, and the area corresponding to the hemispheremay have the weighted length as a radius and start from ground level.That is, the culling area may be determined as all virtual figures thatmay be generated based on the road information.

As an example, the culling area may be determined based on a particularpoint such as a location of a vehicle in a navigation environment. Thatis, the culling area may be determined based on the road information andthe location of the vehicle, and a culling area determination unit 910may change the culling area based on a change of the location of thevehicle. Specifically, since the location of the vehicle continuouslychanges in the navigation environment, the culling area may change basedon the location of the vehicle.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the determining in operation S210 may includedetermining in operation S211 and providing in operation S212.

In operation S211, the display system may determine a width of a roadwhere the vehicle is driving. In this instance, the display system maydirectly determine the width of the road using map data includinginformation about a width of a road, or calculate the width of the roadbased on information about a lane of the road. The information about thelane of the road may be obtained from the map data.

In operation S212, the display system may provide a predetermined weightfor the determined width. In this instance, the display system maydetermine the culling area based on the weighted width and the locationof the vehicle. For example, when the determined width is 18 m, thedisplay system may determine, as the culling area, a rectangular areahaving a side of 28 m and a center corresponding to the location of thevehicle. The length of the side, 28 m, may be obtained by summing thedetermined width, 18 m, and 10 m which is previously set as the weight.The predetermined weight may be set as appropriate. Also, the displaysystem may determine a circular area or an area corresponding to a spacefigure as the culling area. The circular area may have the weightedwidth as a radius, and the space figure may start from ground level andhave the weighted width as a side. Also, the display system maydetermine an area corresponding to a space figure as the culling area.In this instance, the area corresponding to the space figure may startfrom ground level and be based on a circular figure having the weightedwidth as a radius. That is, all areas corresponding to the virtualfigure that may be generated based on the road information may bedetermined as the culling area as described above.

In operation S220, the display system may convert data of at least aportion of objects displayed on the culling area. In this instance, atleast the portion of the objects may include an object obstructing theroad from view. That is, data of all objects included in the cullingarea may be converted, or the object obstructing the road from view maybe selected from all the objects and data of the selected object may beconverted. For this, the display system may convert the data to enableat least the portion of the objects to be removed. Specifically, thedisplay system may prevent the objects included in the culling area frombeing displayed, and also convert the data to enable at least theportion of the objects to be removed to obtain a view. For example, asingle building included in the culling area may be entirely removed,and only a portion of the building may be removed to prevent the roadfrom being obstructed from view. Also, the display system may convertthe data to enable at least the portion of the objects to be blendedwithout removing. Here, the data of the objects may include modelingdata about the objects.

Also, the display method may further include an operation of dividingthe culling area into a plurality of areas, which is not illustrated inFIG. 2. When the culling area is divided, the display system maydifferently convert the data depending on each of the divided areas. Forexample, when the culling area is divided into two areas, the displaysystem may apply a data conversion for removing at least the portion ofthe objects to an area of the two areas, and apply a data conversion forblending at least the portion of the object to another area.

In this instance, the plurality of areas may be generated by providingweights different from each other for the width of the road. Forexample, when the culling area is a rectangular area determined byproviding the predetermined weight, 10 m, for the width of the road, theculling area may be divided into two areas. The two areas may be tworectangular areas generated by providing a weight of 5 m for the widthof the road.

In operation S230, the display system may display at least the portionof the objects based on the converted data. Specifically, the displaysystem may convert data obstructing particular information from view anddisplay at least the portion of the objects on a map screen based on theconverted data. Accordingly, the display system may efficiently displaythe object to enable the particular information to be completelydisplayed.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of determining a cullingarea based on road information. FIG. 3 illustrates an example ofdetermining a rectangular culling area in a navigation environment. Thatis, a rectangular area 304 is determined as the culling area. Therectangular area 304 has a length 303, calculated by providing a weightfor a width 302 of a road 301, as a side. In this instance, data may beconverted and displayed to enable at least a portion of objects includedin the culling area or at least a portion of an object of the objects tobe removed or blended. Accordingly, navigation information may beprevented from being obstructed from view. Also, the calculated length303 may dynamically vary with respect to a fixed weight based on roadinformation such as information about a width of a road. Accordingly,the culling area may automatically change depending on the road, and anobject may be efficiently displayed.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating another example of determining aculling area based on road information. FIG. 4 illustrates an example ofdetermining a circular area 404 as a culling area. The circular area 404has a length 403, calculated by providing a weight for a width 402 of aroad 401, as a radius. All types of figures such as a circle, a lozenge,a rectangle as illustrated in FIG. 3, and the like may be used as theculling area. Also, a 3D concept may be applied to the culling area, andthus a solid figure may be used as the culling area.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a culling area determinedbased on a width of a road. Although a weight is not set depending on aroad as described with reference to FIG. 3, a culling area 503 of a road501 and a culling area 504 of a road 502 may have different widthsdepending on different widths of the roads 501 and 502. Accordingly,data of objects included in a smaller area may be converted in a roadwith a small width, and data of objects included in a larger area may beconverted in a road with a great width. Thus, objects such as abuilding, mountain, hill, and the like may be efficiently displayedwithout obstructing an area where navigation information is displayedfrom view.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen where a portionof each object included in a culling area 601 is removed. Only bottomsides of buildings 602 included in the culling area 601 are displayed inFIG. 6. In this instance, only a portion of objects, obstructing an areawhere navigation information is displayed from view, may be removedwithout removing all the buildings 602 included in the culling area 601.Data of the buildings 602 may be converted for the removing.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen where objectsincluded in a culling area 701 are blended. It is illustrated thatbuildings 702 included in the culling area 701 are blended withoutobstructing an area where navigation information is displayed from viewin FIG. 7.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen where differentconversions are applied depending on divided areas. It is illustratedthat a culling area is divided into a first area 801 and a second area802 in FIG. 8. The second area 802 is an area excluding the first area801 from the culling area. A portion of a first building 803 included inthe first area 801 is removed and only a bottom side of the firstbuilding 803 is displayed in FIG. 8. Also, a second building 804 in thesecond area 802 is blended in FIG. 8. As described above, the cullingarea may be divided into a plurality of areas and different conversionsmay be applied to each of the plurality of areas, and thus objects maybe efficiently displayed.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a displaysystem 900 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Asillustrated in FIG. 9, the display system 900 may include a culling areadetermination unit 910, data conversion unit 920, and display unit 930.In this instance, an area division unit, not illustrated in FIG. 9, maybe further included in the display system 900.

The culling area determination unit 910 may determine a culling areabased on road information. The road information may include informationabout at least one of a width and a lane of a road. That is, the cullingarea determination unit 910 may determine the culling area based on thewidth or the lane of the road. For example, as the width of the roadincreases or a number of lanes of the road increases, the culling areamay be determined to increase.

In this instance, the culling area determination unit 910 may determine,as the culling area, an area corresponding to a virtual figure that maybe generated based on the road information. For example, the cullingarea determination unit 910 may determine an area of a square as theculling area. The square may have a side with a length where apredetermined weight is provided for the width of the road. Also, theculling area may be determined as a cube or an area corresponding to ahemisphere on a condition that the culling area is in 3D. In thisinstance, the cube may start from ground level and have the weightedlength as a side, and the area corresponding to the hemisphere may startfrom ground level and have the weighted length as a radius. That is, theculling area may be determined as all virtual figures that may begenerated based on the road information.

As an example, the culling area may be determined based on a particularpoint such as a location of a vehicle in a navigation environment. Thatis, the culling area may be determined based on the road information andthe location of the vehicle, and the culling area determination unit 910may change the culling area based on a location change of the vehicle.Specifically, since the location of the vehicle continuously changes inthe navigation environment, the culling area may change based on achange of the location of the vehicle.

The culling area determination unit 910 may include a widthdetermination unit 911 and a weight providing unit 912 as illustrated inFIG. 9.

The width determination unit 911 may determine a width of a road wherethe vehicle is driving. In this instance, the width determination unit911 may directly determine the width of the road using map dataincluding information about a width of a road, or calculate the width ofthe road based on information about a lane of the road. The informationabout the lane of the road may be obtained from the map data.

The weight providing unit 912 may provide a predetermined weight for thedetermined width. In this instance, the culling area determination unit910 may determine the culling area based on the weighted width and thelocation of the vehicle. For example, when the determined width is 18 m,the culling area determination unit 910 may determine, as the cullingarea, a rectangular area having a side of 28 m and a centercorresponding to the location of the vehicle. The length of the side, 28m, may be obtained by summing the determined width, 18 m, and 10 m whichis previously set as the weight. The predetermined weight may be set asnecessary. Also, the culling area determination unit 910 may determine acircular area or an area corresponding to a space figure as the cullingarea. The circular area may have the weighted width as a radius, and thespace figure may have the weighted width as a side and start from groundlevel. Also, the culling area determination unit 910 may determine anarea corresponding to a space figure as the culling area. In thisinstance, the area corresponding to the space figure may start fromground level and be based on a circular figure having the weighted widthas a radius. That is, all areas corresponding to the virtual figure thatmay be generated based on the road information may be determined as theculling area as described above.

The data conversion unit 920 may convert data of at least a portion ofobjects displayed on the culling area. In this instance, at least theportion of the objects may include an object obstructing the road fromview. That is, data of all objects included in the culling area may beconverted, or the object obstructing the road from view may be selectedfrom all the objects and data of the selected object may be converted.For this, the data conversion unit 920 may convert the data to enable atleast the portion of the objects to be removed. Specifically, thedisplay system may prevent the objects included in the culling area frombeing displayed, and also convert the data to enable at least theportion of the objects to be removed to obtain a view. For example, asingle building included in the culling area may be entirely removed,and only a portion of the building may be removed to prevent the roadfrom being obstructed from view. Also, the data conversion unit 920 mayconvert the data to enable at least the portion of the objects to beblended without removing.

Also, the display system may further include the area division unitdividing the culling area into a plurality of areas. When the cullingarea is divided, the area division unit may differently convert the datadepending on each of the divided areas. For example, when the cullingarea is divided into two areas, the area division unit may apply a dataconversion for removing at least the portion of the objects to an areaof the two areas, and apply a data conversion for blending at least theportion of the object to another area.

In this instance, the plurality of areas may be generated by providingweights different from each other for the width of the road. Forexample, when the culling area is a rectangular area determined byproviding the predetermined weight, 10 m, for the width of the road, theculling area may be divided into two areas. The two areas may be tworectangular areas generated by providing a weight of 5 m for the widthof the road.

The display unit 930 may display at least the portion of the objectsbased on the converted data. Specifically, the display unit 930 mayconvert data obstructing particular information from view and display atleast the portion of the objects on a map screen based on the converteddata. Accordingly, the display unit 930 may efficiently display theobject to enable the particular information to be completely displayed.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a display methodand system may determine a culling area based on road information suchas a width and a lane of a road, convert data of at least a portion ofobjects included in the determined culling area to enable at least theportion of the objects to be removed or blended, and thereby may preventthe road to be guided from being obstructed from view and efficientlydisplay the objects. Also, the display method and system may determine aprocess of generating the objects such as a building depending on thewidth of the road using a virtual figure that may be generated based onthe road information, and thereby may efficiently display the objects.

Also, the display method and system may divide the culling area into aplurality of areas, remove a portion of an object with respect to anarea adjacent to a road and blend a portion of an object with respect toan area far away from the road, and thereby may efficiently display theobjects.

The exemplary embodiments of the present invention includecomputer-readable media including program instructions to implementvarious operations embodied by a computer. The media may also include,alone or in combination with the program instructions, data files, datastructures, tables, and the like. The media and program instructions maybe those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of thepresent invention, or they may be of the kind well known and availableto those having skill in the computer software arts. Examples ofcomputer-readable media include magnetic media such as hard disks,floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD ROM disks;magneto-optical media such as floptical disks; and hardware devices thatare specially configured to store and perform program instructions, suchas read-only memory devices (ROM) and random access memory (RAM).Examples of program instructions include both machine code, such asproduced by a compiler, and files containing higher level code that maybe executed by the computer using an interpreter. The described hardwaredevices may be configured to act as one or more software modules inorder to perform the operations of the above-described embodiments ofthe present invention, or vice versa.

Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown anddescribed, the present invention is not limited to the describedembodiments. Instead, it would be appreciated by those skilled in theart that changes may be made to these embodiments without departing fromthe principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which isdefined by the claims and their equivalents.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A display system, comprising: a cullingarea determination unit to determine a culling area based on roadinformation; a data conversion unit to convert data of a portion of eachobject displayed on the culling area; and a display unit to display theportion of the each object based on the converted data; wherein theculling area determination unit comprises: a width determination unit todetermine a width of a road; and a weight providing unit to provide apredetermined weight for the determined width; wherein the roadinformation includes information about the width of the road andinformation about the predetermined weight for the determined width,wherein the culling area determination unit determines the culling areausing both information about the width of the road and information aboutthe predetermined weight for the determined width, and wherein the dataconversion unit converts the data to enable the portion of the eachobject to be blended or removed.
 2. The display system of claim 1,wherein the road information includes information about at least one ofa width and a lane of a road, and wherein, as the width of the roadincreases or a number of lanes of the road increases, the culling areais determined to be larger.
 3. The display system of claim 1, whereinthe culling area determination unit determines an area corresponding toa virtual figure capable of being generated as the culling area based onthe road information.
 4. The display system of claim 1, wherein theculling area determination unit determines a rectangular area as theculling area, the rectangular area having a weighted width as a side,and wherein the weighted width is generated by applying thepredetermined weight to the determined width.
 5. The display system ofclaim 1, wherein the culling area determination unit determines acircular area as the culling area, the circular area having a weightedwidth as a radius, and wherein the weighted width is generated byapplying the predetermined weight to the determined width.
 6. Thedisplay system of claim 1, wherein the culling area determination unitdetermines an area corresponding to a space figure as the culling area,the space figure starting from ground level and having a weighted widthas a side, and wherein the weighted width is generated by applying thepredetermined weight to the determined width.
 7. The display system ofclaim 1, wherein the culling area determination unit determines an areacorresponding to a space figure as the culling area, the space figurestarting from ground level and being based on a circular figure having aweighted width as a radius, and wherein the weighted width is generatedby applying the predetermined weight to the determined width.
 8. Thedisplay system of claim 1, wherein the culling area is determined basedon the road information and a location of a vehicle, and the cullingarea determination unit changes the culling area based on a change ofthe location of the vehicle.
 9. The display system of claim 1, furthercomprising: an area division unit to divide the culling area into aplurality of areas, wherein the data conversion unit differentlyconverts data of the each object depending on the divided area.
 10. Thedisplay system of claim 9, wherein the different conversion includesdata conversion to remove a portion of the each object and dataconversion to blend at least the portion of the each object.
 11. Adisplay method, comprising: determining a culling area based on roadinformation; converting data of a portion of each object displayed onthe culling area; and displaying the portion of the each object based onthe converted data; wherein the determining comprises: determining awidth of a road; and providing a predetermined weight for the determinedwidth, wherein the road information includes information about a widthof the road and information about a predetermined weight for thedetermined width, wherein the culling area is determined by using bothinformation about the width of the road and information about thepredetermined weight for the determined width, and wherein theconverting converts the data to enable the portion of the each object tobe blended or removed.
 12. The display method of claim 11, wherein theroad information includes information about at least one of a width anda lane of a road, and wherein, as the width of the road increases or anumber of lanes of the road increases, the culling area is determined tobe larger.
 13. The display method of claim 11, wherein the determiningdetermines an area corresponding to a generable virtual figure as theculling area based on the road information.
 14. The display method ofclaim 11, wherein the determining of the culling area determines arectangular area as the culling area, the rectangular area having aweighted width as a side, and wherein the weighted width is generated byapplying the predetermined weight to the determined width.
 15. Thedisplay method of claim 11, wherein the determining of the culling areadetermines a circular area as the culling area, the circular area havinga weighted width as a radius, and wherein the weighted width isgenerated by applying the predetermined weight to the determined width.16. The display method of claim 11, wherein the determining of theculling area determines an area corresponding to a space figure as theculling area, the space figure starting from ground level and having aweighted width as a side, and wherein the weighted width is generated byapplying the predetermined weight to the determined width.